‘I’ll never trust council again’

A MUM whose son died in council care four years ago says she will never trust the authority again, despite the latest report.

Andrea Jobling’s seven-year-old son Warren was one of the children whose deaths raised concerns about the state of the borough’s social services.

Disabled Warren died in April 2008 while being looked after through the council’s Care to Share scheme, which gave respite care to parents.

Andrea says she has not had all the answers she wants over Warren’s death, and wants the full serious case review document. Children’s services director Chris Pratt says the council answered a series of written questions after a meeting with her.

She said: “I’m glad for all the other kids that the department is now judged as adequate, but I still think they are not open enough.

“I have a lot of friends who have dropped out of the Care to Share scheme because of what happened to Warren.

“I could never trust them again after what happened to my son. I hope things are safe now but I am concerned there could be more deaths.

“I still say if he had been with me at home, he would still be alive.”

Ministers seized control of children’s services in Doncaster in March 2009 after a series of failings. They included concerns raised in serious case review into the deaths of children baby Alfie Goddard, and toddler Amy Howson.

The fathers of both children were jailed for their murders.

Then last year the council was criticised in a serious case review after two brothers, aged 11 and 12, were convicted of convicted of assaulting a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old boy in a crime that provoked widespread outrage and sparked a political debate about Britain’s “broken” society. They were locked up for at least five years.